Players looking to bag award

August 18, 2013

As "Johnny Football" - Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M - might soon turn into "Johnny the Man-ziel Without Football," there will be many candidates jumping into the fray to win the Heisman Trophy in 2013.

Manziel became the first freshman to win the award as the best player in college football a season ago.

Manziel's numerous issues are daily fodder for the Internet and sports-talk radio, seemingly awaiting only an edict from the NCAA to determine the quarterback's eligibility for his sophomore season.

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There's no need to go into detail about his propensity to socialize or to allegedly sign autographs for money - an NCAA no-no. You've heard or read the stories.

So while the Heisman went to Manziel's head, Northern Illinois of the Mid-American Conference wants the award to go to the voters' bellies.

The hype has already begun, believe it or not.

Northern Illinois media folks began the campaign a week and a half ago when it mailed out hot-cold lunch containers with quarterback Jordan Lynch promoted on it, with the slogan "Lunch With Lynch."

The girlfriend of 2012 Heisman Trophy runner-up Mantei Teo must've been in charge of filling the bag with lunch: It was empty.

I put Teo No. 1 on my ballot a season ago. I didn't buy into ESPN's hype for Manziel and include him in any of my three spots on my ballot.

I knew Manziel was a freshman, which - call me old school - excluded him from my consideration.

The reigning Heisman winner seems to be proving he was too immature to handle the fame of the honor anyway, like, well, say, a freshman might.

Just conjecture, while the collapsible lunch sack reads "Jordan Lynch for 6" - his number - it's probably not a suggestion to Manziel to chill his six-pack.

Lynch didn't get a taste of the award last season.

Another MAC player also has a campaign going, too. The exploits of Kent State running back Dri Archer will be featured weekly in a comic strip - the arrow in the Heisman race, in what again will feature plenty of barbs tossed weekly at the candidates.

What I know about the quarterback from the MAC is nothing - well, until Lynch's first publicity mailing arrived.

It was addressed to the wrong person, which probably won't help his candidacy, but I won't steal his lunch money because of it.

I guess it's a way for Lynch to ham-sandwich it up as a dual-threat signal caller.

What I know about DeKalb, Ill., the location of Northern Illinois, is to avoid the electrified wire that keeps the cows from charging the runners on the university's cross country course.

I didn't.

Talk about shocking. Tased long before anybody developed one and any police department had them.

Really, though, talk about shocking: the same media that tried to tell us that Johnny Manziel was the only candidate for the Heisman in 2012 is the same media trying to destroy a young man for being nothing more than a typical college student who just so happens to possess a Heisman Trophy and enjoys the nightlife.

You would have to wonder what Manziel's publicists might put into his baggage.